We still hear that…

Two years ago, on page 10 of the October 2005 issue of Physics Today, I discussed some changes taking place in our scientific community and some changes that would begin to take place in this magazine. In June 2006 we introduced a great many of those and other changes all at once, including new departments and a new design; I described them for you on page 8 of that issue.

In that 2006 editorial, I noted that our website, www.physicstoday.org , has much more than just the complete contents of the magazine. On the homepage, you could—and still can—find daily updates of science-related News Picks from around the world; an Industrial Physics corner; the Research Today tool that provides instant access to research papers as they are published in more than 100 journals and on the arXiv e-print server; a rapidly increasing archive of material from back issues of Physics Today; and access points to the Career Network, Event Calendar, Buyers’ Guide, and community-posted news, including death notices, obituaries, and remembrances. At that time I mentioned that in a few more months, the website would be the new home for the We Hear That department.

Those “few more months” stretched into well over a year. With this issue, however, that goal is accomplished, and We Hear That is now an exclusively online department, easily accessible from our homepage or from www.physicstoday.org/wht . We have worked hard to make it easy for the member societies of the American Institute of Physics (publisher of Physics Today) to upload their society news and thereby make it available to the broadest possible community. Thus you will find there news of awards conferred, prizes bestowed, officers elected, and other items sent in from the societies.

As in the past, we also rely on you to make us aware of newsworthy items. Perhaps a colleague or you received a special award outside of our member-society framework, are moving to a significantly new position or made a significant new hire, or are starting a new company. Many of those and other possible events are newsworthy and can be made available through the We Hear That section of Physics Today‘s website—but only if you let us know. Just click “Contact Us” at the bottom of any page on our website.

With much planning and work, we have now completed one long-planned evolutionary transition. But don’t think that others are not in the works. As we have seen, “soon” makes for an ill-defined prediction. It is therefore safe to say that you will soon see yet more new material—related to tools and techniques—in the magazine and more new features and functionality on our website. Physics Today remains akin to a living organism as it continually adapts to better serve and unify the physics-related community of which you, the reader, are such a vital part. As always, comments on our changes are welcome and can be sent to ptchanges@aip.org .